Plan for Poster

 This is my first poster layout idea.  Conventionally, the poster must include what time the soap is on, what it is called and what channel the audience can watch it on.  I ensured I included all these things.  I like our slogan "It's not always sweet in Cherry Gardens" so I have chosen to use it on both my poster ideas - I think it is memorable and will draw the audience in.  My two ideas are very sinister also; displaying the storyline shown in our trailer where Marris is challenged by Dan and Kirk.  I did this so the audience can easily link these two texts together.  Being a new soap, if we were to use different characters that haven't been introduced through the trailer on the poster, the audience may not realise the two pieces were related and promoting the same new soap opera.  This poster is to be very dark and sinister.  The background will be shadowy and grey/black in colour, connoting horror and dark happenings.  The slogan and title of the soap opera will be in a bright red in contrast to the background and conveniently matching the Channel Five logo, again connoting death, blood and horror.  Hopefully this will interest people into watching the soap to find out what happens.

 

This poster has a portrait layout - unlike my other design.  I wanted it to be striking and capture the viewers attention at first glance which is why the image is quite disturbing.  Hopefully, this shock-factor would make the audience tune in to watch the soap.  I have only included 3 characters on this poster as these are the focus of our trailer so the audience will be able to link the texts easily.  This poster will show more of the soap scenery in the background; with houses from Cherry Gardens in the shot.  Again I have used our verbal slogan on the poster as I think it outlines the content of our soap opera in a nutshell.

Plan for Magazine

Soapy Scene

This is soap magazine I created and named, 'Soapy Scene', to practice with different programs before creating our final soap opera magazine.  Whilst making this I experimented in Photoshop, Paint and finally used Microsoft Publisher to put it all together.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out in Publisher - I thought we might need to use a more specialized program for a more professional look, but I like the result and the layout and will use it for our final magazine.  It also follows important conventions of a soap magazine such as the left third rule - where all the selling points of the magazine have to be situated in the left third of the cover (barcode, title, price, date and sometimes an issue number) to make it easy for the buyer to see these pieces of information when displayed on a shelf where the rest of the magazine would be covered by another magazine.  It uses bright, eye-catching colours and images to grab the buyers' attention, various stories from multiple soap operas (albeit fake soap operas for the purpose of this practice magazine cover) and bold, legible fonts.

Magazine Plan for Cherry Gardens


This is the design I came up with specifically for our soap opera 'Cherry Gardens' with a possible main story we could use and how we could lay it out.  The main story involves Marris Morris (the character our trailer and first episode will revolve around) and 2 stereotypically troublesome teenagers, Dan and Kirk.  Marris is in the middle, trapped by Dan and Kirk, unable to escape, portraying the conflicting and constrictive opinions and relationships between youths and mature/elderly people in society today.  Therefore this story is verisimilitude to everyday life and conventional of soap opera storylines.  The verbal message of 'Behind YOU...' connotes that the story is dark and suggests a cyclical nature (when in pantomimes the character's realisation of the threat is long drawn out) where the characters never reach an agreement and, just when you think it's over, the story continues.

 

Magazine Analysis

Mag Analysis

Soap Mag Analasis by

Poster Analysis

I have chosen to analyse 2 soap opera posters that are different in layout and concept which will hopefully aid the construction of our own soap opera poster.


As I have said previously, Hollyoaks is not a conventional soap opera due to its lack of character age range, unlike other soap operas that represent family life and the different generations.  Most of it's represented characters are teenagers and young adults as it has a specific localized setting around a college/university, again making it different from any other soap.  However, it does stick to verisimilitude soap opera conventions as the type of people who go to college and university in real life are like the young people represented in the soap. 

The bar setting as the communal area, different from other soap operas that often revolve around pubs, also suggests this verisimilitude approach to students and the younger generation who would be found in such settings.  The addition of the bar, rather than a pub, also gives the soap opera a classier, more sophisticated, unique feel.  If the characters in Hollyoaks were kept the same but with the communal area being a pub, it wouldn't seem as believable or real, and wouldn't be inkeeping of the soap world's verisimilitude conventions.  Alongside the tagline "Rub some Hollyoaks on it", the picture resembling a scene that could be found in soap operas such as Coronation Street or Eastenders looks rather grotty in comparison with the more visually pleasing image beside it; giving Hollyoaks a notion of superioriority over any other soap.  Visually, everything about the picture on the right is more appealing, from the high key lighting, vivid colours, well-groomed characters and happy facial expressions.  This clever editing draws the viewer in and makes the other soap operas seem laughable (note the dog soiling itself).  To enhance this even more and make their point even more prominent, the editors have made the image on the left washed-out and old-fashioned, including images of uninspiring individuals.  Hollyoaks has got a more refined target audience of primarily teenagers and young people because of it's young cast.  This poster displays what the youth aspire to be in the hope of gaining viewers because of this.

In conclusion, Hollyoaks uses it's unique qualities to it's advantage and embraces the fact it is different as a way of 'selling' itself.  Surprisingly, the poster doesn't refer to any particular storyline to entice the viewer in, but refers to the soap as a whole. 


This poster is very different in format to the Hollyoaks one.  It entails what looks like a family portrait of the characters in the soap to connote what can only be described as 'togetherness'.  This could be portraying a false picture of happiness, or a true one; either way it entices the viewer in as, knowing about soap opera conventions, the happiness can't last for long and the audience will sadistically want to know what the catch is and how it all inevitably falls apart in the end.

This poster gives the viewer a brief introduction to the soap as, just by looking at it, you can tell it is set in a sunny, fairly rural-looking location with the kangaroo/wallaby in the bottom left-hand corner confirming the guesses.  With the assumption the people included are some of the characters involved, you get an idea of their personalities, hobbies and relations to the other characters from how they are interacting with each other, what they are doing and whether they are holding anything.  Conventionally, the young to the old have been represented and included in this poster, suggesting to the broad target audience of the relatable onscreen characters portrayed, which are their reason to watch. 

The poster includes easily legible information of the soap name, channel and time cleverly displayed on a sign post, as well as some additional information catering for existing viewers.